We got to the room and it was an amazing room. They bring all of your luggage via the golf cart straight to your room together with you. Right when you walk into the room on your right there are steps to go upstairs. When you go up there is a hallway with a desk on the side, from there you can see downstairs. When you continue walking there is a master bedroom with its own living room which has a TV and a mini fridge. Then you have the bedroom also with another TV and its own private bathroom with a big hot tub and separate shower with 2 sinks. Also upstairs is another room which we were able to fit 2 cribs. The room had 2 double beds and its own bathroom with a bathtub for the kids. As well as another 2 sinks. Downstairs you have a kitchen which has a large fridge/freezer, stove top, dishwasher (no oven) and a big dining room table with 3 chairs a a bench on the other side that seats three more. Followed by a living room with a sofa that turns into a bed, and has a balcony attached. We put the kids to sleep unpacked and went to sleep.
Day 3 January 15 Friday.
The kids woke me up at about 7:30. I took them to go check out the free platinum breakfast which is located in the restaurant. They have a cold buffet with a nice amount of kosher items. They have bagels (plain and raisin) which are not packaged but I asked them to bring me a closed package which they did and it had an Ou and they let me take from the closed package. There was peanut butter and jelly a Philadelphia cream cheese which is oud. All were in small individual packages. The milk is also oud I asked to see the container. (You can buy the milk and bagels next door in the deli as well if you do not get free breakfast) they also have a nice assortment of cereals in small boxes. Lots of fruit as well but the only whole fruit that wasn't cut were bananas. The lady gave us a brown paper bag we filled it up with what we needed and were on our way.
I went back to the room prayed and my wife and I took turns going to the gym which is pretty nice and at about 1130 we were ready to start the day. We decided to feed the kids lunch early so we didn't have to come back to the room so I gave them to eat the mini pizzas that we brought.
There’s a deli located near the breakfast restaurant which is also a mini market with reasonable prices. They have Starbucks coffee as well so my wife got an iced caramel (oud) coffee and we were on our way. (I don't drink coffee)
We went to the Westins beach which was very nice and sat until 2:30 the kids enjoyed playing with the toys they got from the st. regis and it kept them busy! The weather was very nice about 80 degrees and sunny.
At about 2:30 we decided to go to the St. John market which everyone kept telling us is 2 minutes away walking (it took a while to find but it was pretty close but it’s a nice walk) to get bottled water, drinks and grape juice. My luggage in mia was overweight and I took a random bag out to put in my carry on and of course when we got to the TSA it was grape juice and they confiscated it. (This was the flight that we were running late to and this didn't help) of course there was no grape juice or kosher wine. I wanted to get water but was not interested in carrying a case of water all the way back to the room so we just got some grapes for and headed back since I was told that there is another supermarket which delivers to the villas. I go to the hotel lobby to ask about this service and asked them when the delivery would arrive. They said it takes 2 days. Great it is 4:00 Shabbat is starting in an hour and a half and we have no drinks or grape juice. I decided not to waste any more time so I went to the deli and bought 6 1 liter bottles of dasani water which cost $3 but only 2.55 with the discount card that the westin gave me earlier that day which gives you 15 percent off all drinks anywhere on the hotel. (Make sure you carry it with you as they will not give you the discount unless you show it to them. I also bought 2 cans of beer for kiddush, some soda cans, a few bags of chips, and 2 bowls of cereal for the kids since I wasn't able to go get breakfast and bring it back to the room since I don't think you can carry from building to building but I'm not an expert. Total was about 50 dollars which isn't so bad! (Unfortunately the cereal and some of the chips were stale).
We all showered. I plugged in the hot plate and we were ready for Shabbat. We fed the kids chicken noodle soup from Pom that we heated up in the microwave right before Shabbat. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures. They loved it and had some hot dogs that we brought, some grapes for dessert and went to sleep at about 6:30. My wife and I were starving since we didn't really have lunch so we decided to take out the 2 meals that were supposed to be for that night plus the one extra one that I bought.
I made kiddush on the beer (by mistake I said hagefen but then corrected myself) and we had our first course. Delicious chalah rolls that we dipped into tahina and matbucha from Pom. I also bought avocado salad but it burst when I emptied the box in Miami so I had to throw it out
Since we had tons of deli (was supposed to be for some lunches) we opened a pack of corned beef which was delicious as well.
Now for the main course. Mine was the schezuan beef with white rice and mashed potatoes. All was very good especially the mashed potatoes which unfortunately we only got once. My wife had the sesame chicken with mushroom rice and roasted potatoes also very good. The 3rd meal we had was hot pastrami which was all fat when I specifically told the guy from pom that I don't want fat. It was really half fat I wish I could have taken a picture. This also had roasted potatoes (I got it a lot for some reason) and cabbage w noodles. The sides were good but I wouldn't get the main again.
We ended up finishing my schezuan beef but had leftovers of the other 2 which we saved for Shabbat lunch.
We ended up going to sleep about 8:30. The beds were very comfortable. I had a great night sleep!
